4.2.22

A sun-loving California girl and a small town Alabama guy walk into a freshman year date night, 7 years later they will be saying ‘I do’ forever. But it wasn’t the typical love at first sight story… for one of us. Lisa is a true California girl; it is her favorite place on earth where rain is a fable and shoes are optional. Eli grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, where country accents are thick and PhDs outnumber the neighboring big city, Atlanta. From these very different backgrounds we arrived in Fort Worth, Texas, to attend Texas Christian University. At the time we would both say this was happenstance. Looking back, it was God and His goodness. At the freshman year date night, we struck up conversation on the gummy kitchen floor with the music blaring. Lisa then had the very reasonable and innocent idea to move outside to talk so we could hear each other. Eli thought she was making a move and got uncomfortable. However, we ended up talking and having a great conversation. Eli walked away thinking “Wow, that was a great conversation.” Lisa, a lot more hardheaded thought, “I’m going to marry that man one day.” Three and a half years of awkward waves later, a dance in Austin tilted the needle in a good way, and a spontaneous trip to the side of the road where Lisa, yelled, “Stop! Pull over!” and proceeded to run along the side of I-35 to pick Texas wildflowers initiated the thought in Eli’s head that this girl would be a fun friend/partner to navigate this crazy but beautiful world with. It would be 6 months later that we would actually have our first date at Chocolate Secrets (where the rehearsal will be!) and the transition to more than friends was beautifully simple. Now, two and a half years later we will be saying “I do.” We are so blessed and cannot wait for a life of adventure, life living in the mundane, and life of everything in between, TOGETHER. God is good and we are so thankful and excited to celebrate with everyone over the wedding weekend!